1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital feedback display panel and supporting software for a computer user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many personal computers have failed to address many of the real interaction needs of users. As personal computers increasingly become a consumer commodity, many of the new opportunities for product differentiation in the consumer personal computer marketplace will likely come from addressing real consumer needs and desires through new avenues of industrial design and interaction design.
One common concern of users has been the difficulty in setting up personal computers. Similarly, users have experienced frustration in using computers due to poor information or lack of useful information altogether.
Briefly, a computer system provides a digital feedback display panel and supporting software to provide digital computer status feedback for a user. The digital feedback display panel is integrated with a computer housing of the computer system. The supporting software detects status notification messages which are processed and communicated to the digital feedback display panel. The digital feedback display panel provides display feedback to the user based on the detected status notification messages. The display feedback can take the form of status icons and blinking text messages displayed on the digital feedback display panel. Examples of status conditions of the computer system which can be communicated to the user include (i) a connection state of a peripheral device to the computer system, (ii) whether the computer system is connected to the Internet, (iii) an indication of how many unread e-mails for the computer system are available, and (iv) network time for a server coupled to the computer system.